Chapter 3

"You didn't know? Charles Bennett, I'd been bleeding heavily since I was twelve weeks pregnant. The doctor kept warning me not to overwork myself or get emotional. Last night, you were the one who asked me to bring the company's Security Token and signed documents to the club. You even said that once I delivered them, you'd go with me for my follow-up. Instead, I got there and saw you lighting Olivia's birthday candles."

He had no answer for that. I stared at him, my throat tight but my voice strangely calm. "When I fell down the stairs, I wasn't the first person you went to either."

Charles' eyes changed. "Grace..."

"You went to Olivia first because she said she'd twisted her ankle. I was lying on the floor with blood all over beneath my dress. You looked at me once, then told your assistant to call an ambulance. You didn't come with me yourself."

As I said it all out loud, I realized some pain goes so far past the limit that it turns numb. Charles stood by the bed, his face growing darker little by little. It was like he was finally realizing how serious this really was.

After a long pause, he said in a low voice, "The baby's already gone. There's no point bringing all this up now."

I slowly lifted my head. "What did you just say?"

He pressed at his brow as if restraining himself. "I'm saying it's already happened. Your health comes first right now. Stop putting yourself through more. The baby... there can be another one later."

I looked at the man in front of me and suddenly felt like he was a stranger. For three years, I had shielded him at board meetings, stood by him through the company's most dangerous days, and brought him stomach medicine at two in the morning.

I used to think that even if he didn't love me, at least he had a conscience. But he didn't. To him, my child was nothing more than, "There can be another one later."

I reached under my pillow, pulled out the divorce agreement, and handed it to him. "Sign it."

Charles glanced at it, and his face went completely cold. "Grace, you're serious?"

"Do I look like I'm joking?"

"All this over one child?"

I suddenly laughed out loud. "Charles Bennett, it's not because of one child. It's because while I was signing for surgery alone, you were blowing out candles with another woman."

"It's because when I was lying in my own blood calling your name, all you cared about was whether I was embarrassing you. It's because I finally realized you don't fail to understand my pain. You just don't care."

I slapped the agreement against his chest. "I'm divorcing you, no matter what."

Charles didn't take it. The papers scattered all over the floor. He stared at me, anger already burning in his eyes.

"Grace, Grandma isn't in good health right now. If you insist on making a huge scene over divorce at a time like this, are you trying to kill her?"

Leaning against the headboard, I suddenly found the whole thing absurd. "When you were celebrating Olivia's birthday, why didn't you think whether Grandma would be furious? When you made your pregnant wife deliver documents to you in the middle of the night, why didn't you think your unborn child might die?"

Charles pressed his lips into a thin line. He hated being cornered more than anything. And for the past three years, I had always been the one to step back. So he probably never imagined I would speak to him like this one day.

After a long moment, he bent down, picked up the agreement from the floor, and said in a voice cold as ice, "I don't agree to this."

"Then we'll do it in court." I looked at him and spoke one word at a time. "Charles Bennett, you can refuse to sign, but you can't stop me."